Riggsbie wrote:I love the way kids are not 'conditioned' into thinking what a cycle should look like in the way adults are....

My daughter wants one too. She's 5 and knows what a velomobile is. It's encouraging when the boy over the road goes riding with us and we see someone rolling around Victoria Park racecourse. He asks "What's that?" and she replies "That's a velomobile!" "A what?" is the reply in quick retort. "A velomobile! Don't you know anything?"

It was good to see a few trikes out there, I saw a few Greenspeeds later on struggling into the wind at the end......I never saw the Rotovelo's, it would have been good to ride in a squadron of Velomobiles.......

I also saw a few Barchetta's too !!

I forgot about the sandblasting, it was quite intense....I was focused on getting out of the wind as quickly as possible and was motoring through those bits.....

Rode home with a bloke from work today talking about his experiences on the ATBIAD. He rode his DF together with an ex work colleague on his highracer. He was telling me that at one point they were caught at a red light behing a group of 3 on Pinarello DFs when a ute pulled up next to them. The passenger of the ute wound down the window and commented "I like your bike", at which one of the Pinarello riders piously turned around and said "thanks". The reply from the passenger seat was then "Not you ya (w)banker, the recumbent!" Dave, being partially deaf, didn't hear the conversation. Pity.

That's Trey - he is just 17 and still goes to school can you believe it.

I assume his parents funded it but I don't actually know that. His is a full carbon fibre Mango too. That would be a lot of paper deliveries ....

The global velo market is expanding at a rapid rate albeit off a very small base. Annual sales of the Quest have doubled over the last 2 or 3 years despite the entrance of several new high profile models (Evo K, Milan SL etc). Sinner had to ramp up their production capability of the mango a year or 2 ago as well. Trisled are getting some good Kudos at the moment following their world velo speed record achievement and are in the process of developing a new Rotovelo with suspension. Maybe one day a company like Giant will mass produce decent quality velos at only a small premium to a similarly spec'ed road bike. Who knows perhaps its always going to be a niche market but it does seem to growing. If you are reading this now that is proof of the interest in velos moving more mainstream. I know I get a lot of overwhelmingly positive feedback everywhere I go - hell even bogans love em

Anyway, I'm very happy with mine and don't regret the price i had to pay. I passed many bikes costing even more on the Brisbane to Gold Coast ride

PS - On the bentrideronline.com site, they have a poll for the average age of velo owners. 67% of owners are over 50 !!! Trey is definitely an outlier.

The recumbent group from BrisbaneCyclist.com had a group ride this morning. There was a number of high racer style recumbents (eg Bachetta, flevobike etc), a Greenspeed trike, a few uprights, and of course 3 Mango velomobiles.

I met Nitramluap early and rode to the Nundah Crit track where we were meeting the others. Nitramluap led me via a new path past the Kangaroo Point cliffs, over the story bridge, through New Farm and onto the crit track. A nice ride and great to explore new paths and routes through the city.

We then met the other 'bent' riders and Burnt led us again on a new path out to Redcliffe where we had breakfast. This time I was following Burnt with a bit of tailwind at speeds in the high 40s, low 50s for an extended period.

Then on the return trip home, Nitramluap was in a bit of a hurry to get home, and I was a bit too, so we headed off at full pace. Nitramluap was riding like his wife was in labour!!!! I was really struggling to keep up but every time he started to get a little ahead he would have to slow for traffic and I'd catch back up. A testing ride for me but I managed to set 20 new PBs on strava segments along the way

I got a panic call from my wife too which was hilarious. I installed a location tracker on her phone about a week ago so she can locate me when riding or coming home etc. turns out she tried it today for the first time, just as I was passing the hospital. She assumed I had been taken there by ambulance

So a brilliant ride on a brilliant day in a brilliant machine. 120km all up for me. All part of "Living with a Velomobile" folks ....

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